"Truly, it is the indescribable sweetness of contemplation which you give to those who love you. In this you have shown the tenderness of your charity, that when I had no being you made me; and when I strayed away from you, you brought me back again to serve you and commanded me to love you." The Imitation of Christ

Thursday, 28 June 2007

Petition To Protect The Unborn

I hadn't realised that the unborn child has no legal status at all, unless after a crime it is born and then dies. I mean, I did know that millions are aborted without so much as a by-your-leave, but this refers to an attack on a pregnant woman which results in her unborn child dying.

Anyway, there is an e-petition calling for the legal recognition of unborn children, and legal redress against their being killed or injured.

The case is being championed by Michael Dwyer of Birmingham, whose seven-months pregnant partner Sarah Hunt was knocked down and killed by a car has launched an online petition to get "justice for Connor", his unborn son. He hopes to achieve a new law which would allow crimes against unborn children to be prosecuted.

3 comments:

Very few countries have such a law on their statute books, and for a vewry good reason. Danger of 'double jeopardy'.In simple terms, double jeopardy is where you try the same person twice for the same crime.

This is a tragic story but the perpetrator did go to prison for seven years which is actually the average tariff imposed for such a dangerous driving case.Presumably, if the dangerous driving episode was so dangerous then other, far more serious charges e.g. Manslaughter, would have been invoked.

I assume that the driver was an otherwise honest and upright citizen with no other convictions. A first time offender is 'allowed' a 50% discount in sentencing when a custodial sentence is being contemplated. A seven year sentence is certainly no easy or cushy experience even for career criminals. BTW: the Birmingham Mail is totally wrong about when this man gets out. As the sentence has taken him beyond the 'five year rule' he will not serve half the sentence but two thirds "up to three quarters" as the Criminal Justice Act 1993 words it. Whether it is the former rather than the latter will be up to the Parole Board to decide. Some of their thinking will centre around whether this perpetrator has displayed "sufficient contrition and repentence". Yes, amazingly for such a secular society the parole board actually demands this of offenders in exactly those words.

The issue of double jeopardy is very much to the fore in this case if Michael is to be believed. Since the Police, already presumably having charged the man with dangerous driving (the very highest 'end' of the Road Traffic Offences Act)then sought to have their cake and to eat it at the same time by speculating aloud as to whether he could not also be charged with 'murdering' the unborn child. Now, I find this an odd thing to say, given that, in fact, a living, walking, talking child had already been 'murdered' in the actual crash.

The suggestion, presumably to Michael, that they might charge the driver with the murder of the unborn child... well, not the first time that Police have uttered stupid things to victims or media, will not be the last either. It is also a classic example of what the police have always been accused of doing(and the very reason that the CPS was invented)- overcharging a criminal in the hope that if the more serious charges don't 'stick' then at least the lesser charges will.

In a more pernicious form, double jeopardy can be used to keep a person in prison for far longer than the original sentence. Classically, (and the Soviet Union and Communist China do this well) just as the sentenced person is coming to the end of their sentence the prosecution service come along with a whole 'new' set of offences related to the original crime. It does appear to me that this might be playing in Michael's mind.

This is a good idea. There have been numerous cases where pregnant mums have been killed with their unborn babies and the child or in the case of the IRA bomb-twins were not recognised as casualties.The greiving father's are given the news that their beloved children are worthless. This is cruel and crass.

Year For Priests

About Me

I was about to describe myself as a young Catholic woman, but alas, that is no longer strictly true (two out of three isn't bad)!
I came back to the Church 22 years ago after what I consider to be a Damascus Road conversion, and
I'm fairly traditional in my outlook.
I am a single woman living and working in the world (as a Science teacher), and I took private vows in December 2002.